The essence of these titles is a closed environment in which you uncover objects that open up various areas.

Thus, you need to reach certain areas to upgrade your avatar in one way or another in order to gain access to other areas.

I'm already familiar with the Castlevania sequels using this model on the Nintendo DS.

2 - Adventure (such as Zelda: A Link to the Past)

The essence of this title is a top-down game where the avatar gathers items which enhance their capabilities. The world, once again, is rather open-ended, but the dungeons and some worldmap features clearly ask for specific avatar items that the player must find in order to proceed.

Thus, either side-scroller or topdown game where the avatar's advancement is marked by items or powers earned from achievement undertakings (as opposed to acquiring experience points).

Any suggestions?

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I've played the Binding of Isaac. It is an interesting design, but its procedural content really threw me off. The game gives you new tools and weapons, but they don't quite help you unlock new areas of the game (you'll be able to go anywhere regardless of the items you get). The item that mattered a bit more was the 'keys' but even so, it was employed as a resource rather than a limitation (any key can fit any door).

I'll see if I can refresh these links later, as they appear consistently failing...

Thanks regardless!

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The links work for me (i.e. giant bomb is not down). Might be your local set up. Those lists are very good.

Rogue-likes (like Binding of Isaac) do share a lot in common with the "metroid-vania" stuff: exploration of a large, free-roaming map where acquired upgrades will press the player to revisit previously explored locations to dig deeper, i.e. the upgrade will unlock something, blow a hole in a cracked wall, move a giant boulder, etc. Other than the obvious examples (Metroid and the later Castlevania games) games like Zelda come to mind...which are games you also ask about.

I guess I need a bit more context here to be of any real help. What's the goal?

I was previously serratemplar; a name I forfeited to share a name with an angry rank-bearing monkey.

At any rate, Binding of Isaac can't quite qualify for this definition. It is much more an arcade game, and while bombs and keys are resources that can be used to unlock certain doors, they aren't items that unlock new areas per se. Besides, the backtracking is impossible (you simply go deeper and deeper) which is somewhat missing the point of what I'm really interested in at this stage (I actually like Binding of Isaac though, don't misunderstand me!).

I'm interested in developing a cheap clone of either of these games (a super metroid/castlevania clone or a zelda: a link to the past clone) but I'd like to see other similar games that I could study. I'm not interested in original gameplay mechanics as much as I'd like to see proper execution. In my opinion, Super Metroid and Zelda: A Link to the Past are marvellous gems, and I'd like to see either other gems that achieved this differently, or less than perfect games using the same core principles so I can underline what didn't work and consider them warnings to making a good clone.

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